Hull City and Newcastle United target Nicolas Pepe has revealed that he consciously kept himself away from the deadline day madness and feels time was still not right for him to move to England.
Hull and Newcastle were heavily linked with a move for the 21-year-old Angers forward and the Tigers even reportedly slapped in a bid for the player on deadline day.
Pepe was aware of the speculation over his future at Angers, but insisted that he left his agent and the other relevant people to take care of business rather than actively take part in all the dealings.
The Ivorian also added that he doesn’t feel that the time was right for him to move to England and stressed that he is keen to help Angers beat the drop in Ligue 1 this season.
Speaking to French sports daily L’Equipe, Pepe said: “I tried to live as calmly as possible.
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“I let my agents and [Angers general manager] Olivier [Pickeu] to do their job and not mingle too much.
“Anyway, I don’t see myself playing in England immediately.
"In the corner of my head I wanted to stay as I didn’t want SCO to believe that I had to immediately leave.
“I also wanted to help the club survive and didn’t want to cut corners.”
He also added that even if he had left, he would have preferred to continue in France and revealed that his agent did hold talks with Marseille.
“I rather wanted to stay in France.
“I know that my agents spoke with Marseille, but I knew I was going to stay.”
